Rail anchor



Aug. 4, 1925. 11,548,587

c. G. ERICSON RAIL ANCHOR Filed Oct. 6, 1924 I lLL hum. a a 553- jf a y 1,548,587 PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES G. ERICSON, OF TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA.

RAIL ANCHOR.

Application filed October 6, 1924. Serial No. 741,938.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES G. ERICSON, resident of the city of Toronto, in the county of York, Province of Ontario, Canada, a subject of the King of Great Britain, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rail Anchors, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to rail anchors of the typeemploying a yoke embracing the rail base flange and a wedge shaped shoe driven between one edge of the flange and the yoke and provided with an abutment adapted to engage the side of a tie. In such anchors it is common to form the shoe as a malleable casting. One of my objects therefore is to devisea form of shoe which can readily be made by the use of dies froin flat metal bars. A further object is to so construct the yoke and shoe that the yoke may be used to re-in'force the abutment and thus enable the shoe to be made of lighter gauge metal than would otherwise be possible. Finally my object is to embody in the anchor details of construction which will overcome difiiculties due to inexactness in the railor anchor construction and which will improve its grip on the rail.

The above mentioned objects I attain by means of the constructions hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which- Fi 1 is a plan view of a metal bar showiplg 51c method of blanking out the wedge s oes;

Fig. 2 an 'end elevation of the anchor in position on a rail;

Fig. 3 a side elevation of the same;

Fig. 4 a plan view of the same;

Fig. 5 an end elevation showing a modification;

Fig. 6 a plan view of the anchor shown in Fig. 5; and

Fig. 7 is a side elevation of part of a shoe showing its initial angle of engagement with the upper surface of the rail base.

In the drawings like numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.

In Fig. 1 is shown a fiat bar of a malleable metal, which by means of suitable dies is cut to form the wedge shoe blanks 1, which are so'shaped that they fit in together as shown and hence may be out from the bar Without loss of material.

This blank is then bent up as shown in the drawings to form the U-shaped member 2 adapted to fit over the edge of the rail base, and the integral abutment member 3 extending downwardly and adapted to engage the side of a tie.

The back of the wedge member is thus parallel to the front edge of its upper portion.

To adapt the wedge shoe for use with the yoke hereinafter described, the back, or a portion of the back of the shoe is required to lie at an angle with the edge of the rail base. In malleable castings this is usually effected by gradually increasing the thickness of the metal at the back of the shoe from the entering end towards the abutment end. This construction, however, is not feasible when the wedge shoe is formed by cutting and bendin plate metal. I secure the desired efiect, owever, :by projecting inwardly part of the metal of the shoe by a suitable forging operation to form a projection 7 adapted to hold the back of the wedge shoe at an inclination to the ed e of the rail base, as shown more particu arly in Figs. 4 and 6. If desired, to give greater stiffness to the back of the shoe and a greater bearing against the edge of the rail base, a second projection 8 may be formed by indenting the back of the shoe.

lVhile, as a rule, the back of the shoe will be formed with a straight taper as shown particularly in Fig. 4, it may in some cases be desirable to confine the taper to the entering end of the wedge shoe, while the re mainder of the hook engaging part of the shoe is substantiall parallel to the edge of the rail base. I fin that this form, which is shown in Fig. 6, may be imparted to the wedge shoe by a suitable forging operation. In the preferred form of shoe shown in Fig. 2, the throat of the wedge shoe is preferably widened adjacent the bottom of the groove so that the shoe contacts with the rail base along surfaces inwardly of its edge. This, since the wedge shoe is formed from a fiat bar of uniform section, means that an upwardly arched form is given to the part of the wed e shoe immediately over the edge of the rail ase.

A further peculiarity of the construction of the upper part of the wedge shoe is that the angle of the under side of the upper part adjacent the inner edge is slightly less than the angle of the upper surface of the rail base to the under side of the rail base, so

" of steel and bent at one end to form the ing downwardly to pass under the lower hook 5 adapted to engage one edge of the rail base, while the other end is provided with the hook 6 adapted to embrace the U-shaped wedge shoe member 2 and overhalig the rail base as shown particularly in ig. 2.

It is referred that the yoke member ad.- jacent t e hook 5 shouldlie close a ainst the under side of the rail base, thence endpart of the jaw member.

The yoke and wedge shoe are so formed that the yoke engages the wedge shoe only at the back of the latter, the upper surface adjacent its inner edge being quite free from the under surface of that part'of the shoe underlying the rail base and free also of that part of the shoe immediately above the edge of the rail base.

From the construction described it follows that the radius of curvature of the hook 6 is considerably greater than it would be if the wedge shoe closely embraced the rail base adjacent its edge and if the hook itself closely embraced the wedge shoe. It also results that any wedging action tending to spread the hook is applied adjacent the end of the hook where it is much less effective in causing stresses tending to break the yoke adjacent the plane of the edge of the rail base. A further result of this construction is that the contacts being only along two separate surfaces, much less trouble is ex erienced due to inequalities in the formatlon of the shoe and the yoke.

To facilitate the wedge shoe entering the hook 6, the entering end of the shoe is bevelled, this bevel being preferably on the upper surface as shown in Fig. 3. As set forth in the preamble to this specification, it

is desirable that the yoke be used to reinforce the abutment. The yoke will therefore usually be driven 'up to the position shown in Figs. 3 and 4, in which its under part contactswith the back of the abutment. This, however, brings the yoke so close to the tie that it cannot be driven to a position diagonal to the rail and substantially at right angles to the back of the wedge shoe without bringing the and remote from the shoe into contact with the tie, so that the pressure, when the rail tends to creep, is applied to this end, tending to loose the anchor. I have overcome this'difliculty by bending thehook 6 at such an angle to the remainder of the yoke that the hook 6 may lie substantially at right angles to the back maintaining the hook end 5 well free of the side of the adjacent tie. What I claim is:-

1. A rail anchor wedge shoe of U-form having an integral inward projection at one end of the bend adapted, when the shoe is applied to a rail base, to space the shoe at one end from the edge of the rail base and to hold the-shoe wlth its back at an angle to the ed e of the rail base.

2. A rail anc or wedge shoe of U-form having and within "the same extended inwardly to form an integral projection adapted, when the shoe is applied to a rail base flan e, to space the shoe at one end from the ed of the rail baseand to hold the shoe wit its back at an angle to the edge of the rail base.

3. A rail anchor wedge shoe formed of malleableplate metal bent to U-form and havin an lntegral inward projection at one end 0 the bend adapted, when the shoe is applied to a rail base, to space the shoe at one end from the edge of the rail base and to hold the shoe with its back at an angleto the edge of the rail base.

4. A rail anchor wedge shoe formed of malleable plate metal bent to U-form and having the metal at one end of the bend displaced inwardly to form a rojection adapted, when the shoe is applied to a rail base flange, to hold the shoe with its back at an angle to the ed e of the rail base.

5. A rail anchor we ge shoe of U-form having the metal at one end of the bend displaced inwardly to form a projection adapted, when the shoe is applied to a rail base flange, to hold the shoe with its back at an angle to the edge of the rail base and also indented at the bend intermediate of the ends of the shoe to form an intermediate projection also adapted to engage the edge of the rail.

6. A r'ail anchor wedge shoe cut from a metal plate and bent 'to form a U-shaped wedge member and a depending abutment member at one end of the wedge member, a part of the metal at the bend adjacent the abutment member being displaced inwardly to form a projection adapted, when the shoe is applied to a rail base flange, to hold the shoe with the back of the U-shaped member at an angle to the edge of the rail 7. A rail anchor comprising a wedge shoe adapted to embrace one edge of a rail base and having its back formed as a wedge; and a yoke adapted to span the rail base having a hook at one end adapted to engage the other edge of the rail base, and a hook embracing the wedge shoe and overhanging the rail base, the throat of the hook being the metal at one end of the bend curved so that the hook on ages the wedge shoe only at the back and a jacent its upper inner edge.

8. A rail anchor comprising a wedge shoe adapted to embrace one edge of a rail base and having its back formed as a wedge; and a yoke adapted to span the rail base havlng a hook at one end adapted to engage the other edge of the rail base, and a hook embracing the wedge, shoe and overhangmg the rail base, the throat of the hook being curved so that the hook engages the wedge shoe only at the back and adjacent its upper inner edge, the entering end of the wedge shoe being bevelled at the upper side, while the under side of the shoe is substantially parallel to the rail base for its whole length whereby any wedging action of the shoe perpendicular to the rail base is exerted only upwardly against the free end of the said hook.

9. A rail anchor comprising a wedge shoe formed of malleable plate metal bent to U- form and having an integral inward projection at one end of the bend adapted, when the shoe is applied to a rail base to hold the shoe with its back at an angle to the edge of the rail base, the throat of the wedge shoe being widened adjacent the bottom so that the shoe contracts with the rail base along surfaces inwardly of its edge; and a yoke adapted to span the rail base having a hook at one end adapted to engage the other edge of the rail base, and a hook embracing the wedge shoe and overhan ing the rail base, the throat of the hook being curved so that the hook engages the wedge shoe only at the back and adjacent its upper inner edge.

10. A rail anchor comprising a wedge shoe adapted to embrace one edge of a rail base and having its back formed as a wedge; and a yoke adapted to span the rail base having a hook at one end adapted to engage the other edge of the rail base, and a hook embracing the wedge shoe, the last mentioned hook end of the yoke being bent relative to the remainder of the yoke so that said hook end may be substantially at right angles to the back of the wedge when the remainder of the yoke lies substantially at right angles to the edge of the rail base.

11. A rail anchor comprising a wedge shoe adapted to embrace one edge of a rail base and having its back formed as a wedge; and a yoke adapted to span the rail base having a hook at one end adapted to engage the other edge of the rail base, and a hook embracing the wedge shoe andoverhanging the rail base, the throat of the wedge shoe being widened adjacent the bottom of the groove so that the shoe contacts with the rail base only along surfaces inwardly of its edge.

12. A rail vanchor comprising a wedge shoe adapted to embrace one edge of a rail base and having its back formed as a wedge;

and a yoke adapted to span the rail base having a hook at one end adapted to engage the other edge of the rail base, and a hook embracing the wedge shoe and overhanging the rail base, the throat of the hook being curved so that it engages the wedge shoe only at the back and adjacent its upper inner edge, the throat of the wedge shoe being widened adjacent the bottom so thatthe shoe contacts with the rail base along surfaces inwardly of its edge.

13. A rail anchor comprising a wedge shoe adapted to embrace one edge of a rail base and having its back formed as a wedge, the upper part of the wedge being free of the rail base adjacent the edge of the latter having a surface of engagement with the upper surface of the rail base intermediate of the edge of the base and the web of the rail; and a yoke adapted to span the rail base and having a hook at one end adapted to engage the other edge of the rail base, and a hook embracing the wedge shoe and engaging said shoe only at the back and adjacent the upper inner edge, being free of the underside of the wedge shoe and the upper side intermediate the back and said upper inner edge.

14. A rail anchor comprising a wedge shoe adapted to embrace one edge of a rail base and having its back formed as a wedge, the upper part of the wedge being free of the rail base adjacent the edge of the latter having a surface of engagement with the upper surface of the rail base intermediate of the edge of the base and the web of the rail; and a yoke adapted to span the rail base and having a hook at one end adapted to engage the other edge of the rail base, and a hook embracing the wedge shoe and engaging said shoe only at the back and along a surface of the shoe adjacent the upper inner edge and which is parallel to the underside of the upper part of the shoe, the yoke being free of the wedge shoe elsewhere.

15. A rail anchor constructed as set forth in claim 11 in which the surface of the wedge shoe engaging the upper surface of the rail base is bevelled at an an 1e slightly less than that of the upper surface of the rail base, whereby a substantially full contact between the two surfaces is assured when the yoke has been driven to operative position on the shoe and rail.

16. A rail anchor comprising a wedge shoe adapted to embrace one edge of a rail base, said shoe having substantially parallel upper and lower surfaces adjacent the abutment end of the anchor and bevelled adjacent the opposite end; and a yoke adapted to span the rail base having a hook at one end adapted to engage the other edge of the rail base, and a hook embracing the Wedge shoe and overhanging the rail base, the throat of i the hook being curved so that' the book engages the wedge shoe only at the back and adjacent its upper inner edge.

17. A rail anchor comprising awedge shoe adapted to embrace one edge of a rail base and having its back formed as a wed e and havin the inner edge of its upper 'si e substantiafiy parallel to the back; and a 'oke adapted to s an the rail base having a hook at oneend a apted to engage the ot er edge of the rail base, and a hook embracin the wedge shoe and overhanging the rafi base, the throatof the hook being curved so that the hook engages the wedge shoe only as the back and adjacent its upper inner e ge.

18. A rail anchor comprising a wedge shoe adapted to embrace one edge of a rail.

only at the back and base and having its back formed as a wedgeand having the inner edge of i edge save at the entering end of the being of substantiall even thiehlem along parts engaged b t e oke; and a a he adapted to span t e rail asehavin I, 00k a at one end adapted to en t e other edge of the rail base and'a 00k embraci the wedge shoe and overhan the; r25 base, the throat of the hook in curved so that the hook engages the w ge shoe 80 adjacent its upper inner ed e.

Signe at Toronto, Canada, this 90th day of September 1924.

CHARLES G. ERICSON. 

